Sporting Exchanges between China and the United States, 1980–1984: Inevitable Politics and Excessive Political Strings

Abstract

Sino-US sporting exchanges between 1980 and 1984 largely paralleled the patterns of the larger bilateral relations between the two nations. The over-politicization of sports by the two governments–and especially by the PRC–created the parallelism. Curiously, scholars of sport and international relations have paid little attention to Sino-US athletic interactions in this period, an oversight that needs to be remedied in light of the reciprocal correlations between international sport and international politics. Indeed, Sino-US athletic exchanges in the context of their bilateral relations underscores the mutual connections between sport and diplomacy.